The Underground Golden Palace
The Underground Golden Palace is the tenth episode of the Cyborg 009 1968 anime series. Cyborg 005 guest stars in this episode. Plot Summary In the American southwest, Cyborg 005 finds himself witnessing a murder and is chased by evil desperadoes in pursuit of a map to a hidden Incan treasure. However what he and the other cyborgs find is much more dangerous than treasure... Episode Recap Cyborg 005 is riding his horse through the American western desert when he hears someone crying for help. He finds a cowboy hat with a bullet hole in it and soon hears gunshots in the distance. A covered wagon being driven by an old man and his two horses is speeding away from some Mexican bandits, but one of the bandits draws his gun and shoots the old man right in the back three times. The old man nearly collapses and the wagon goes out of control as the horses are spooked by the gunfire. Cyborg 005 sees this from a cliff above and chases the bandits to stop them. The bandits try to use their guns to shoot 005 but his reinforced steel body makes their efforts useless as the bullets bounce off of him. The old man tries to use the last of his strength to steer the wagon as his sight falters from blood loss, but he is about to crash and mentions someone named Catherine. As the wagon's wheel hits a large rock, the old man falls out of the wagon and onto the ground. 005 sees this and tries to defend him by pulling out his Winchester rifle, killing most of the bandits while on his horse, but one escapes and flees. 005 rushes to the old man, who reveals he is an archeologist who was searching for and found the secret of a hidden treasure of the Incans. Realizing he is dying, the old man, later revealed to be called Dr. Snyder, instructs 005 to give a map that gives directions to a hidden golden Incan palace to his daughter. The old man passes away and 005 takes off his hat and mourns his death. 005 then contacts Gilmore Labs in Japan, requesting 009 to ask Dr. Gilmore for information regarding the Incan civilization. 009 is curious as 005 is not the kind of guy to be into historical subjects, but 005 says to hurry as it is urgent and will contact 009 again later. The next day, a train stops at Ligroines station and 005 meets Dr. Snyder's daughter Catherine and, like a gentleman, offers to carry her bags. Catherine received 005's letter and he offers his condolences for her loss. A bandito near the station tries to kill Catherine with a machine gun, but 005 saves her by pushing her out of the way. The bandit flees before 005 can shoot him and despite the danger, Catherine wishes to fulfill her father's life's work by finding the golden temple. She first requests that 005 take her to her father's grave, which he does and she prays and wishes her father to rest in peace. Catherine asks 005 to help her on her quest, which he agrees to so he can protect her if the bandits try again to attempt another assassination. At a cabin near Dr. Snyder's grave, 005 presents Catherine with a box that her father wanted 005 to give to her which contains the map. 005 hears someone outside and tells Catherine to get down on the ground as a time bomb is thrown inside the cabin from a window. 005 quickly tosses the bomb back out the window and it explodes outside. He then rushes outside and draws his handgun, shooting an army of bandits that have surrounded the cabin and are firing on him. Overwhelmed, 005 ducks behind a barrel for cover to draw the bandit's fire away from the cabin. The bandits try a different tactic when shooting 005 doesn't work by arming themselves with flamethrowers and burning the cabin with Catherine still inside. 005 tries to save Catherine but the barrage of gunfire from the bandits finally manages to do some damage to his body and he passes out for a few seconds. He wakes up as the bandits leave and rushes to the cabin to try and rescue Catherine, but she is not in the cabin and thus was kidnapped by the banidts. 005 pulls out a hidden radio and issues an SOS to Gilmore Labs to call for back up as the burning cabin comes down on top of him. 005 emerges from the ruins of the cabin and greets 009 who has arrived from Japan in a gyrocopter. Despite not having the actual map to find where the bandits went on the trail of the temple, 005 memorized the map with his computer-enhanced brain.Before they can do anything, a drone tank opens fire and uses a missile to destroy 009's gyrocopter after 009 tries to shoot it and then destroys it, leaving them with no transportation. 005 and 009 set up camp and catch up on things since they last saw each other. 009 told 007 to stay at Gilmore Labs and if he did 009 would bring back a souvenir. 009 then gives 005 the information from Professor Gilmore he requested on a tape recorder in his briefcase. The recording of Gilmore gives a history lesson on the Incan Empire, including the fact that many of their gold and treasures were never found and vanished when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in South America, or the Incans possibly hid their treasure somewhere far away from the Spaniards. The voice of the recording changes, and it is revealed the tape recorder is actually 007. 007 gives a bit more history, such as the fact no one has searched for Incan treasure in the 20th century. 009 scolds 007 for disobeying him and the young cyborg shrinks to the size of a mouse in shame. 009 allows 007 to tag along under the condition that he treats this mission as a rescue mission to save Catherine and not a treasure hunt. 007 agrees and they all get some sleep to get up early. The next morning, the team acquire a Jeep with a trailer to travel with supplies, unaware a bandit is watching from afar and informing his superior of their activity. As 009 drives down the route 005 gives, he gets annoyed at 007 for constantly singing like they are on vacation. Up ahead some wild bulls are running across the road and 005 tells the others they need to be quiet, otherwise the bulls will stampede in a panic from any loud noises. 009 stops the jeep to let the bulls pass by but they are then spooked by the Bandits. Three of the bulls charge at them and the 00 Cyborgs are forced to abandon their vehicle as it gets smashed by the charging bovines. Joe lands on and rides one of the bulls rodeo style while 005 grapples bulls by their horns with his super strength and tosses all the bulls away. After the bulls have been dealt with, 005 is exhausted. 007, who was disguised as one of the bulls, complains to 005 for injuring him on accident by mistaking him for the other bulls. 005 apologizes and 009 instructs the two to split the supplies so they can be carried and now they have to walk. As they walk several miles, 007 starts complaining about the heat and thinks he can't take another step. He knows he shouldn't complain but he really is exhausted. 009 motivates him by showing him the skull of a bull and if 007 doesn't move, he'll end up like it. 007 runs ups the hill in a huge panic and then dances with joy. 005 and 009 thinks he has gone delirious from the heat, but 007 has spotted snow capped mountains on the horizon, one of which leads to the temple. Upon reaching the mountains at night, they must climb the treacherous cliffs and the mountainside. 007 tries flying up by changing into a tiny hot air balloon. But, 007 then stops while ascending to fawn over some baby vulture chicks in a nest, whose mother is none to happy about this and "pops" 007's face causing him to fall. 005 catches him and they decide to do it the hard way and climb the mountain. 005 uses his strength to crack the mountain's base a bit to from a climbing path and 009, despite a fall down the mountain after slipping, manages to reach the top with a rope so the others can climb up easier. However, 009 is greeted at the top of the cliff by an army of bandits with guns pointed at him. 009 quickly takes care of them with his superhuman speed and twin Super Guns, doing a wild west cowboy gun twirl in a spur of the moment. 009 gives the all clear and 005 and 007 meet him at the top. The trio then her a noise and find Catherine hidden inside an old ruined fort. Catherine insists on going into the temple and the trio agrees to go with her. She instructs them to find "the Tower of Light" as it is the location of the entrance. 007 finds it after going ahead, a tower made of solid gold with a hidden door. The treasure box with the map the bandits stole is locked in place in a window-like section of the tower, revealing it is the key to open the door. The four go inside and enter a cavern and then go behind a waterfall to the final hidden door. Upon opening the door and seeing the wonders of the hidden Incan temple, Catherine disappears. The door the the temple opens and a voice just like hers comes from a menacing golden robot, the woman they thought was Catherine reveals herself and she is actually Jizanpa, the queen of the Incans. Jizanpa had stolen the letter addressed to Catherine and it never went to the real Ms. Snyder. Jizanpa assumed her guise to trick the 00 Cyborgs into finding the treasure of her people so she could rebuild her empire and use the giant temple guardian to conquer the world in revenge for the murder of her people at the hands of foreigners. She also reveals she was the one who ordered the bandits to kill Dr. Snyder to prevent anyone else from finding the temple and hired them to stage the ruse of her being kidnapped. Now she intends to kill the 00 Cyborgs next. She activates the Temple Guardian and it fires destructive energy beams from its eyes and then bursts out from its resting place, revealing it is an ancient but powerful robot. The three 00 Cyborgs engage the robot, dodging its laser blasts and trying to use their Super Guns to blast it. 009 instructs 005 to try and hold the Guardian down, but 009's plan to open fire and hit its eyes while 005 holds it down seemingly fails, as 009 is smacked away by its giant hand and gets badly injured. The Guardian however goes out of control and begins destroying the temple as its optics short out and blow fuses from the damage of 009's shots. Jizanpa screams in terror as she clings to the malfunctioning robot's neck and as the temple collapses, the floor cracks open and the weight of the Guardian sends both it and Jizanpa to their doom as they fall through the floor and into a deep dark chasm. The 00 Cyborgs survive by being far enough away from the hole in the floor and getting out of the cavern. With the excitement over and the temple destroyed with all its treasure lost, 005 says goodbye to 007 and 009 at the airport. 005 will try to find the real Catherine Snyder to inform her about her father's death. 005 asks 009 to give his regards to Dr. Gilmore. 007 is bummed out that they didn't get to keep any of the treasure they found and lost, but 009 ha had enough talk of treasure and jokingly promises to leave 007 at the airport if he complains anymore about treasure. 007 dashes to the plane and the two head back to Japan on a jet. Errors *There are a few animation/audio errors of lip movement in this episode, the most notable is one where 005's voice is heard but 007's lips are the ones that are moving during the Incan robot's attack. Notes *This is one of the more violent episodes of the series, as real guns are used and many characters are seen being killed by being shot through the chest or head (Though no blood is shown due to censorship practices of television during that time period) *During thier Jeep ride, 007 plays a guitar and sings a Japanese song to the tune of the popular American western folk song Oh Susanna. *In keeping with the western theme of the episode, snippets of the score for the song by Dale Evans and Roy Rogers is played in the background. This song was used as the ending theme of every episode of The Roy Rogers Show which ran from 1951 to 1957 on NBC and was a popular western song on the radio during that era. *Joe guntwirls his twin Super Guns after defeating the desperadoes. This stylish gunplay move of the Old West was popularized by the Hollywood western film and TV genre, but this is actually very dangerous to do in real life and takes practice and using a gun or a prop gun that isn't loaded. *Interestingly, the plot twist with Queen Jizarupa and her Incan guard robot bears some similarity to a Cyborg 009 manga story that would be written by Ishinomori seven years later, titled "The City of Wind". Category:Cyborg 009 (1968) Category:Cyborg 009 (1968) Episodes